Railway-spike.



R. L. SMITH RAILWAY SPIKE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.21, 1905.

942,668, Patented Dec'.7,1909.

UNITED STATES PATEN @F.

ROBERT LEE ,SMITI-I, OF RICH MOUNTAIN, WEST VIRGINIA.

RAILWAY-SPIKE.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT LEE SMITH, a citizen of the United States,residing at Rich Mountain, in'the county of Randolph, State of TestVirginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inRailway-Spikes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full,clear, and eXact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

This invention relates to a railroad spike and has for its object toprovide a spike which may be readily driven into a tie which will beheld securely against lateral displacement in all directions and whichwill have a minimum tendency to work loose.

In the drawings forming a portion of this specification and in whichlike numerals of reference indicate similar parts in the several. views,Figure 1 represents a perspective view of a spike embodying myinvention. Fig. 2 is a rear elevation of the spike, while, Fig. 3 is atransverse sectional view of the spike.

Referring now to the drawings, it will be noticed that the spikecomprises a tapering body portion 5 having a wedge point 9 and a head 6which projects beyond the flat front face 7 of the body or stem in theform of a lip 8 which is designated to engage over the flange of therail in the ordinary manner. The face of the spike which is adapted tocome against the flange of the rail is in the form of an elongatedcoffin-shaped polygon the perimeter of which comprises parallel runningtop and bottom edges, the incised or notched edges 18 and 19 the upperedges of which converge toward the head 6 to form a bearing surface asshown at 7 in Fig. 1, this bearing surface being intended to lieadjacent the rail flange. From the head 6 the body of the spike isgradually enlarged a short distance to form a transverse shoulder 11presenting a straight under edge as shown in Fig. 2, the shoulder beingcontinued at right angles to form the two end webs 12 and 13 directedtoward the wedge end of the spike, this rear face of the spike beinglongitudinally channeled or concaved to a point proximal to its end asshown in Fig. 3 to present the knife edges 14 and 15, the knife edgesbeing notched or incised as shown in Fig. 2. This rear faceSpecification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 21, 1905.

Patented Dec. '7, 1909.

Serial No. 251,275.

or surface is angled near its lower end to form a wedge in conjunctionwith said face 7 as shown in Fig. 1. This rear face as shown in Fig. 3,is hollow, and in outline has the form of a quadrilateral the upper edgeformed by the shoulder 11 being wider than the lower edge represented bythe cutting edge of the wedge point and at its lower end forms a wedgewith said face as shown. The sides of the spike are also channeled orconcaved and flared rearward and outward as clearly shown in Fig. 3 andin outline are ,wedge shaped having a straight edge formed by the face 7while the opposite edge is twice angled, the first angle being formed bythe inclined wedge surface and the second by the edge of the rear faceof the spike. It is by means of the concaved surfaces of the sides andrear that the knife edges 14 and 15 are formed.

The spike is so constructed that when driven into a tie to bring the lip8 into snug engagement with the rail flange the shoulder 11 will be inengagement with the top of the tie to cover that part of the tie whichis crowded between the projecting edges 14% and 15 so that rearwardmovement of the spike from the rail is prevented, the spike furtherbeingheld against such movement by the crowded wood fibers in contact withthe concaved sides of the spike. The shoulders 12 and 13 cut the woodjust below the shoulder 11 to prevent the tie from tearing or blooming,and

Having thus described my said invention what I claim as new is As a newarticle of manufacture, a tapering spike, consisting of a single pieceof metal having a wedge point, a lip provided head, a flat front face, arear hollow face, channeled sides, and a transverse shoulder at the rearupper end having a straight under edge and two end webs directed towardthe point of the spike, the lower portions of the edges between thechanneled sides and rear face being incised, as and for the purpose setforth.

In testimony whereof, I afiiX my siguature, in presence of twowitnesses.

ROBERT LEE SMITH.

Witnesses AARON SMITH,

O. L. FLANAGAN.

